1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to providing cooling for integrated circuits.
2. Related Art
As integrated circuits (ICs) perform operations, they often generate heat. This generated heat can cause problems when it causes the temperature of the IC to rise above a desired maximum temperature. In response, systems have been developed to provide cooling for ICs. For example, fans can provide cooling to one or more ICs.
In one type of cooling system, a fan is assigned to each IC located on a printed circuit board (PCB). In such a system, each IC generates a control signal that is indicative of an amount of cooling required or desired by the IC. However, each of the fans required by the cooling systems can take up space on the PCB and increases cost of the total system. Furthermore, the operation of each of the fans can be based on a polling of the temperature of the each of the respective ICs. Since the polled temperature is often only valid at the time of the poll, the fans often provide cooling based on outdated temperature information.
In an alternative system, a dedicated IC is added to the PCB that measures a temperature and outputs a control signal to a fan based on the measured temperature. However such a system requires an additional devoted IC that takes up space on the PCB and increases the cost of the total system. Furthermore, the dedicated IC may also measure temperature through a series of polls so that cooling signals generated by the dedicated IC may be outdated.
Thus, what is needed is a system and method for providing real-time cooling to multiple ICs with a single fan in space efficient and cost effective manner.